


We face each other one last time

by ferggirl



Category: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-18
Updated: 2013-11-18
Packaged: 2018-01-02 00:06:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1050195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferggirl/pseuds/ferggirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The fight for Wonderland hangs on this final battle. The Red Queen's treachery forces Alice to reconsider her feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We face each other one last time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OpenPandorasBox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OpenPandorasBox/gifts).



> A prompt fill that ran away with me - it's my first time writing these characters, so please be gentle.

The final battle. It was never supposed to happen like this. 

If she won, Anastasia had to yield Cyrus’ bottle to her possession. She could destroy it and finish what they had come here to do.

She and Will had been here too long. A year of fighting their way past monsters, magic and the Caterpillar. Everything seemed changed. Even the reassuring glow of the heart on her necklace had begun to fade. 

Alice had learned early on that she could not see Will hurt. His story of heartbreak had made her ache with sympathy, but surely that was friendship. Her anger at the Red Queen had grown with each attempt to use Will as a distraction, a lure, an easy target. 

Because he was worth so much more than that. 

When she'd been poisoned in the Tulgey Woods he'd guarded her for three days, keeping her hydrated and warm while Lizard fetched the antidote. He'd faced his past, over and over again, and chosen her... her cause over all of it. 

And then they'd freed Cyrus and Will had smiled that sad smile and wished them well. 

_Stay_ , she'd argued, her heart in her throat,  _finish this with us_. It was as much his right as theirs to see this through. And she could not bear to see him go. 

So he'd come to this battle by her side. 

"I, Alice, do challenge Anastasia, the Red Queen, to duel. She may choose her champion."

Her words still rang through the paved courtyard. Both Cyrus and Will had tried to convince her that there were other, subtler ways. But she knew that the Red Queen and Jafar were prepared to deal with theft. A duel gave them no quarter. The rules were ironclad, the handshake magical. 

One would die, and one would win. 

"Oh, if we must, darling," Anastasia's bored smile was palpable even from a distance. "But you really must learn to be more  _specific_  when you issue such challenges. Who may I choose from? What if I choose a dragon? Or a Caterpillar? Oh, don't worry," she tutted, "I won't choose Jafar. I do know the rules. No magic. Such boring ones. Won't it be nice when they're changed?"

A tendril of doubt wrapped its way around Alice's heart. 

"Get on with it, Anastasia," Will snapped. "None of us came here to listen to you ramble."

"Oh, yes, Will dear, I thought I saw you there. With your dear Alice to the end? How noble," she cooed. "But how's your heart feeling now that the lovebirds are reunited? Let me help you with that, _darling_."

Cyrus moved to stand by Will, intending to block any magic aimed at him. But the Red Queen only had words. Her playful demeanor dropped away. 

"I, Anastasia, Red Queen of Wonderland, accept your challenge and your terms. A duel to the death, between you and my chosen champion..." she paused, watching the crowd gathered hold its collective breath. Then she winked and said, "Will Scarlett, our own Knave of Hearts."

"Oh, bloody hell," he whispered.

Alice saw stars for a moment as the magic wrapped itself around her. Cyrus was left looking on helplessly, for even genies could not countermand a magical contract willingly agreed to. 

When her vision cleared, she and Will were in a square of garden, sealed off from the rest of the crowd. Two curved swords lay at their feet. 

"Sorry to repeat myself, but  _bloody hell_." He ran a hand over his head and stared at her for a minute. 

"Will, just don’t touch me." She backed away from him, not wanting the physical contact that would seal this contract. She moved to the nearest hedge wall, searching for a hole or some sign of a door. "I'll…I’ll fix this, don't you worry."

"Alice," he said softly, coming to stand a few feet behind her. "It's done. The only thing we did wrong was to trust that she would be even a little honorable and choose from her own people."

She leaned against the hedge for a moment, breathing in the green freshness and turning the problem over and over in her mind. He called her name twice more before she turned slowly to face him. 

"How could I not have seen this?" she asked him. "It's brilliant. If you win, I die and she wins. If you lose, the wish means I die. So she wins." 

"Cheery, both of those," he muttered. "But in the second I think Cyrus would technically get the bottle."

"We both die in the second one!"

"Yes, I gathered that, thanks." His face looked haunted for a moment. “You may have noticed that you die in both outcomes.”

"Will..." she was aching to touch him. It was the magic, she told herself. The spell wanted them to complete the contract and get on with it. Never mind that this feeling had become strangle familiar over the last few months.

"I don't plan on killing you,” he said shortly. “Not after a year of saving your very nice bum. I'm far too invested."

"I'm not going to kill you either," she snapped. "And...and my bum is none of your business."

"Oh, right," he growled, crossing his arms. "Sorry, I forgot your one true love is waiting outside for one or both of our bodies. Helpful chap, that Cyrus."

"Shut up." There was no heat in it. She didn't want to argue with him. She wanted to save him.

But he was still feeling combative. "What part of that did I get wrong? You're not telling me we spent a year in this dump to rescue a guy you just fancy a bit?"

"Will, shut. up." But she couldn't meet his eyes. She'd kissed Cyrus when they'd rescued him. And when he'd pulled away, she could see that he felt it too. The change. 

It didn't matter. She would protect them both and save Cyrus from Jafar's terrible fate. When that was over, then they could… talk.

Suddenly, Will was right in front of her. The magic danced on their skin, reaching out for its other half. She gasped and tried to step backwards, but the hedge blocked her.

"Look me in the bloody eyes right now and tell me he's your one true love. Tell me you are still in love with him." There was urgency in his voice, and a wild something in his face. She'd have called it hope, only it couldn't be.

The swords reappeared, dropping between them as a not-so-subtle hint that they were meant to be dueling. Her boot nudged one as she adjusted her stance and raised her head.

She faced him squarely. Will Scarlett. The Knave of Hearts. The man who'd built a new life, somewhere far away from all of this, and then had left it, in an instant, because she'd needed him. 

And she told him the truth: "I can't."

He kicked the swords to the side and stepped closer. 

"Will, stop. The magic..." she breathed.

"Hang the magic. Why can't you?" 

"I don't know!" She crossed her arms, clenching her hands into fists to keep from touching him. "Around when I was poisoned, in Tulgey, I noticed it - the glowing heart was fading. I thought - I thought it meant that something had happened to Cyrus."

"I remember," he said shortly. "Made you a right mess of a patient."

"Yes, well," she bit her lip and looked down. He'd had to physically stop her from running off in her weakened state. She'd hit him a few times in frustration, then fallen asleep in his arms. "I kept saying he was my one true love because..."

"...because you had to, or why were you here?" he murmured. "And why was I here?"

"Well, yes. Exactly. And I'd been so very sure of it, for so very long."

His mouth softened a bit around the edges, hinting at a smile. "You're only 19 years old, Alice. You haven't been sure of anything for so very long."

"Shut it. Anyway. I knew when I saw him again, it would be fine. It would be just like it was." She hesitated, and he picked up the thread.

"So that's why he asked me," he said. "After the rescue and your romantic kiss. He asked me if anything had happened... between us."

He was a whisper away from her now. It was hard to think straight with him standing so close.

_The magic,_ she reminded herself sternly.

"But nothing did!" she protested. "We didn't _do_   _anything_." He shot her an exasperated look. 

"Alice, did you fall for Cyrus before you kissed him?"

"Of course I did -" she started, but trailed off when the realization hit her.

"There she is." He smiled with cheeky pride.

"You?” The air seemed to have all rushed from her lungs. “And _me?_ "

"Apparently." He was watching her closely, but she was too stunned to react with more than words.

"But I never meant to… I was so sure - I had it all planned out..."

"Mmm, well, have you heard the one about the best laid plans?" he asked, his gaze straying to her mouth. Her heart was pounding, and her mind was abruptly clearer than it had been in days. 

_Will_. That's what had changed. 

He leaned in, his breath warm on her face, and she panicked. She ducked and danced away.

"The magic," she said reproachfully, "you can't touch me!"

"Alice," he said calmly, walking toward her with measured strides. "There's no way out of here. I've been mad about you for ages. If one of us is going to have to kill the other, I'd very much like to kiss you first."

When he put it that way, it sounded so reasonable. 

"I suppose we could, uh, take advantage of the privacy," she said. "But contract or no, I am still going to find a way out of killing you. I'm not going to let them win."

"Good," he agreed distractedly. "Now shut up, please."

For just a second, only their lips touched. A shock went through both of them, and Alice felt a rush of power, emotion, heat and  _rightness._

Her eyes drifted closed and she finally let her hands unclench and reach for him. When she angled her head to better fit with his, he groaned and pulled her closer. The rush faded until only heat was left, but it was glorious heat.

After a few minutes, he pulled back and touched his nose to hers as they gasped for air.

And then she noticed their surroundings. The crowd was back, staring and pointing in confusion. The Red Queen's balcony was destroyed, and she and Jafar were nowhere to be seen. 

"Alice!" Cyrus came running up to them, hesitating when Will's hold on her tightened.

"Stop acting like a child with a new toy," she hissed at him, and his arms dropped to his sides. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it, then stepped forward.

"Cyrus, what happened? We...we hadn't fought," she said awkwardly. 

He smiled, but it was wistful. "There was a pulse of magic; it swept the Red Queen and Jafar with it." He held up the destroyed lamp. "This fell at my feet. You won without fighting at all."

“I don’t understand,” Will stepped up beside her. “The rules of the duel are fixed. Magic has no place there.”

“Ah, but as I always told Alice,” Cyrus looked between the two of them, “there are some forces even magic cannot resist.”

Will and Alice spoke at the same time.

“What’s that? Stubbornness?” “Ah, you must mean utter stupidity.”

Cyrus just stared at them. “Alice, may I speak with you for a moment?”

She nodded, and as they walked away, she could feel Will’s eyes following her.

“I told you once,” Cyrus said softly, “that magic always comes with a price.”

“Listen, Cyrus,” she said, “you don’t have to… I’m the one who, who changed.”

“But that’s what I’m telling you, Alice,” he said softly. “Linking our hearts like I did – I could feel you. I didn’t know why you were feeling certain things, but I knew what.”

“What are you saying?”

“I felt your tenderness, your compassion, your anger and your… your love.” He swallowed and looked away. “I was sure it was for me, until we kissed. Because that swell, that painful, terrifying, wonderful feeling of yours that had been haunting me – you didn’t feel it then.”

“Cyrus –”

He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “You saved me from an eternity of slavery, Alice. For that I will always love you. But you owe me nothing.”

“I care so much about you,” she said, tears in her eyes.

“I know,” he said with a smile. Then he held out his hand, and she pulled the chain from around her neck. The pale pink glow shimmered there, for a moment, and then he waved his other hand above it, and it was a stone once more.

******

They meant to take it slow. At the celebration that night, Will kept saying things about giving her space, and needing her to do what’s best for her, until she got sick of it and shut him up with a kiss. That led to more kissing, and then suddenly they were sneaking out of the party thrown in their honor.

They managed to stumble into a hayloft. When he said something about showing her just how light his fingers really were, she started laughing uncontrollably. But her laughter turned to gasps and moans when he set to it with some real concentration. It was hours before they came up for air.

She was nestled against his chest, his leather jacket covering the two of them, when he brought it up.

“So what’dya reckon?” he murmured, one hand playing in her hair. “How exactly _did_ we save the day?”

“Oh,” she said with a smile. “Didn’t I ever tell you my second wish?”

“You made a second wish? What are you invincible now or something?”

“No, nothing like that,” she said. “I wished for… oh it sounds silly now.”

He flipped them then, and she landed with her back in the soft hay. She narrowed her eyes and flipped them back, winding up with her legs around his waist, looking down at him.

“It’s not silly,” he said. “Tell me.”

She leaned down and kissed him. “Fine. I wished for… for a happy ending. The magic of the wish must have countered the magic of the contract somehow,” she said in an embarrassed rush.

He stared at her, awed. “I thought you couldn’t make wishes about love.”

“Well, technically, it wasn’t a wish about love,” she said. “My happy ending might have been as a dairy maid on a farm with 45 cats.”

“Oy, cheeky,” he laughed, dragging her down against him for another kiss. “So where does that leave our tally?”

“Oh,” she grinned against his lips. “I’ve saved your life 7 times, and you’re at a measly 4. Lots of catching up to do.”

“Ah, well then. In the meantime, I guess I’d better work on keeping that ending happy.” 


End file.
